Italian firm plots multi-disciplinary ABS

Leading Italian multi-disciplinary firm Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati has applied to become an alternative business structure (ABS), it has revealed.

Pirola wants to allow accountants and lawyers in its London partnership to share revenues and profits.

The firm, which was established in the early 1980s, provides legal and tax advisory services. It has an annual turnover of €100m (£82m), 160 lawyers and 320 tax advisers, and nine offices in Italy and one in Beijing in addition to London, which opened last year.

There are five lawyers in London and the firm plans to double that by the end of next year. It said the decision to apply for ABS status “opens up the possibility to offer tax compliance and accounting services”.

Among Pirola’s recent instructions was acting for Jobrapido Ltd, one of the world’s largest job search engines, in its €30m merger with A&N Media’s digital recruitment group.

London partner Colin Jamieson, a solicitor specialising in tax, said: “The Italian legal market is very different to the UK. While we could provide a full range of business services in the UK, we would have to keep the financials separate. So we have decided to apply to become an ABS to allow us to ensure we can build a fully integrated office here providing a full range of multi-disciplinary services.”

Legal Futures Blog

Written in honour of Malcolm Young, recently deceased founding member of AC/DC, there are nine references to AC/DC songs throughout this article. We will send a £20 iTunes voucher to the first person who gets in touch to tell us what they are. The forces that are driving change in the legal profession are wide and varied. The ability of law firms and individual solicitors to respond positively and innovatively to these challenges will determine who survives and prospers. Competition for new business is fierce, a dog eat dog world, one might say. Which brings us to AC/CD. Not my favourite rock band, but an acronym for Attract, Convert, Close and Delight – the four pillars of inbound marketing.